MUSCATINE, Iowa — In an old warehouse in Muscatine, Iowa, there's a treasure trove of buttons with a storied history along the Mississippi River.
The warehouse was part of a button factory that dates back to 1886. Fast forward to 2021, the warehouse lies in the charge of Seanteelle Smith of Blue Grass. She runs the facility, in charge of organization and button sales.
"I think we tried to do an approximate count at one point," she said, "we thought 200,000 boxes of plastic buttons. That was just the plastic, we've discovered a ton of buttons beyond that."
In particular, the buttons that draw the most interest are the pearl buttons, having used mussels from the Mississippi River.
And there's more to the button variety inside.
"There's been plastic, there's been bright colors, there's been decorative plastic with etchings in it, there's been wood, even tiny little painted sombreros at one point," said Smith. "There is decorative metal, there is heavy metal, antique brass, antique pewter, antique silver. There's a freshwater pearl, excuse me the Mississippi pearl as well. It is literally full of every type of button you could, I even found some of the cloth covered fabric buttons from the 70s."
People come from far and wide to shop this button warehouse.
"You can't find real pearl buttons anymore like this," said one shopper who came up from Kansas City.
Smith says she believes they may have the largest inventory of buttons across the United States.